Tajikistan

National Security

In the years following independence, Tajikistan has made some efforts
to establish independent national security institutions and forces. At the
same time, in the mid-1990s a contingent of CIS troops remain in place
under a Russian-dominated command. At least until resolution of its
internal conflict, Tajikistan seems assured that more powerful countries
will exert substantial influence on its national security affairs.

Russia's Role in the Early 1990s

Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991,
Tajikistan had no army of its own. Administratively, the republic was part
of the Soviet Union's Turkestan Military District, which was abolished in
June 1992. By the end of the Soviet era, the old military system, which
commonly (although not exclusively) assigned draftees from Tajikistan to
noncombat units in the Soviet army, had begun to break down, and draft
evasion became a common occurrence in Tajikistan. Reform plans for
Tajikistan's conscription system were overtaken by the breakup of the
union.

Following independence, the Nabiyev government made repeated efforts
between December 1991 and June 1992 to organize a national guard. Those
efforts met strong opposition from factions fearing that an antireformist
president would use the guard as a tool of repression. When his national
guard plans failed, Nabiyev turned to private armies of his political
supporters to kill or intimidate political opponents. In 1992 additional
armed bands were organized in Tajikistan, some associated with opposition
political groups and others simply reflecting the breakdown of central
authority in the country rather than loyalty to a political faction.

The main regular military force in Tajikistan at independence was the
former Soviet 201st Motorized Rifle Division, headquartered in Dushanbe.
This division, whose personnel are ethnically heterogeneous, came under
jurisdiction of the Russian Federation in 1992 and remained under Russian
command in early 1996. Officially neutral in the civil war, Russian and
Uzbekistani forces, including armored vehicles of the 201st Division and
armored vehicles, jets, and helicopters from Uzbekistan, provided
significant assistance in antireformist assaults on the province of
Qurghonteppa and on Dushanbe. The 201st Division failed to warn the
inhabitants of Dushanbe that neo-Soviet forces had entered the city, nor
did it interfere with the victors' wave of violence against opposition
supporters in Dushanbe. In the ensuing months, the 201st Division was
involved in some battles against opposition holdouts. Russian troops
stationed in Tajikistan were a major source of weapons for various
factions in the civil war. Combatants on both sides frequently were able
to buy or confiscate Russian military hardware, including armored
vehicles.

In January 1993, a Russian, Colonel (later Major General) Aleksandr
Shishlyannikov, was appointed minister of defense of Tajikistan (a post he
held until 1995, when he was replaced by Major General Sherali
Khayrulloyev, a Tajik), and many positions in the Tajikistani high command
were assumed by Russians in 1993. Meanwhile, in mid-1993 the joint CIS
peacekeeping force was created. The force, which remained by far the
largest armed presence in Tajikistan through 1995, included elements of
the 201st Division, units of Russian border troops, and some Kazakstani,
Kyrgyzstani, and Uzbekistani units. By 1995 the officially stated mission
of the 201st Division in Tajikistan included artillery and rocket support
for the border troops. Included in the division's weaponry in 1995 were
180 M-72 main battle tanks; 185 pieces of artillery, including sixty-five
pieces of towed artillery; fifty self-propelled guns; fifteen rocket
launchers; and fifty-five mortars.

Border security is a key part of Russia's continued military role in
Tajikistan. In June 1992, the formerly Soviet border guards stationed in
Tajikistan came under the direct authority of Russia; in 1993 a
reorganization put all Russian border troops under the Russian Federal
Border Service. By 1995 an estimated 16,500 troops of that force were in
Tajikistan, but about 12,500 of the rank-and-file and noncommissioned
officers were drawn from the inhabitants of Tajikistan.